If you are inclined to believe much of the corporate media, the world is apparently teeming with terrorist “masterminds” – dead or alive.

I was reminded of this media concoction while digesting a spate of hyperbolic stories about the still-disputed killing of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group’s chief spokesman and the group’s alleged No 2, Abu Mohamed al-Adnani, in Syria in late August.